David Wise of Rare, Ltd.: Comparing 16-Bit Themes to 8-Bit Themes

[ColecoFan1981]

Does anyone here remember David Wise, who was the primary musical director for the Rare, Ltd. we knew and loved (1987-2002)?

While primarily renowned in the 16-bit world for the Donkey Kong Country trilogy of games released for the Super Nintendo between 1994 and 1996, before that happened, he made many musical contributions to such 8-bit Nintendo efforts such as Wizards & Warriors (and its two sequels, 1990's Ironsword and 1992's Kuros: Visions of Power), R.C. Pro-Am, Marble Madness, California Games, Battletoads, Taboo: The Sixth Sense, Cobra Triangle, Snake, Rattle and Roll, Ivan "Iron Man" Stewart's Super Off-Road and countless others.

My theory is this: for all those of you who closely study each and every song and sound effect of all the Rare-developed NES games, which of those melodies crept their way through into the melodies of the DKC trilogy (and other 1994-2003 Rareware developments for the Super NES and N64)?

I know, for example, the "Crocodile Cacophony" stage theme from DKC 2 is partially lifted from the second movement of the Ironsword main title theme.

And I also bring this up as to imagine what Wizards & Warriors and its two sequels would have sounded like if they had been ported to the Super NES a la Super Mario All-Stars, with Acclaim Entertainment being the publisher as usual. Because that never happened, I can't be sure why the W&W franchise was neglected after the third NES title (Kuros: Visions of Power) and Rare never looked back. But if such a trilogy anthology game ever did exist, it would probably bring out the same musical excitement as the DKC trilogy had.

~Ben